Anti-androgens for non-binaries?

To be honest, you probably could. If you see a therapist and they give you the thumbs up, it's all systems go.

 

You shouldn't lie about it. Just be completely upfront about everything, I'm sure they'd ok the anti-androgens.

If not, find another therapist?

 

I'm not totally sure how far, if at all, I'm going to explore this option for myself. (The idea of transitioning still scares me down to my bone marrow.) However, I've been curious about perhaps some herbal "augmentation", if there's legit results. Not asking for night-and-day results, but every little bit helps without having to go whole-hog for a prescription.

Claudette, am I mistaken that you've posted about certain herbal/natural substances you take to enhance your feminization??

 

Maybe someday, if I ever work up enough courage to do something like that. HRT would, I would hope, add some decent curves, clear up my skin and thin out body hair. For now, I'd be OK with even a tiny amount of those. If certain natural sources will give me that, I'd like to try them.

 

Unfortunately, the herbals are not tested and many are unsafe. You could try eating a lot of soy as it's supposed to very slightly increase bio-available estrogen. However, I eat a ton of soy and I think my T levels went up bc estrogen can convert to androgens...

The best thing to do would be to work out whether or not HRT is for you. If it isn't then that's OK, too. (*hug*)

---------- Post added 18th May 2014 at 08:01 PM ----------

I believe that they will give you anti-androgens and even HRT if you wanted it. The thing is that if you simply go on the anti-androgens, you will eventually have to go off and either have T again or take hormones. Anti-androgens are meant only to delay puberty/ tone down androgens to let HRT be more effective. Long-term, you need sex hormones for normal metabolic functioning and for healthy bone-density. Anti-androgens are effectively like a temporary orchiectomy (removal of testes). Those who undergo bilateral orchiectomy MUST go on hormones (estrogen or T) and the same is true regarding anti-androgens.

I think they would be harmless for a year or so, thus providing tine to figure out gender stuff but unfortunately, you will have to decide what hormone team to play for. (*hug*)

 

I was afraid of this. Considering the crap I already put in my body, not sure it would make much difference, though.

(*hug*) I do want some feminization to my body, though, especially the clearer skin (have horrible bacne ) and fat redistribution. I can still get away with presenting male with that, if I have to. But I'll feel so much better about myself as a female. Guess I need to ask her if there are half-measures when it comes to HRT?

 

You may be able to take lower doses combined with low dose anti-androgens but I wouldn't know how effective they might be. With T, there are slower delivery methods that provide a cushion if you decide to stop but I'm unsure about the kind girls take... Two things to consider:
1) If you take HRT, many of the effects can be hidden if you're still trying to pass as male (makeup and compression sports bras)
2) There are other things that can treat acne and smooth skin/ lessen body hair. Unless you want breasts, most everything else can be dealt with in some other way.

 

Not sold on breasts yet. Think they would be nice sometimes, other times I'm OK with a flat chest. Not sure how much this attitude might change once I'm out, though.

I really need something for my bacne. Long wig helps to cover some of it, but these new, partially backless/shoulder-less dresses have got me obsessing over my bacne. (It looks horrible.)

 

Llama is on the case! I have it, too, though not much compared to my teens. I can't believe I'm saying this to a woman... but I will say that a good bit of mine has resolved since I started sleeping without a shirt on about 3 years ago. *runs hurriedly to a mosque to beg forgiveness :roflmao:* Just food for thought. :icon_redf

 

Hmmm, typically slept without a shirt for most of my life, although bacne has gotten worse since I started sleeping in my corset. (I'm back to doing it again, btw.)

Anxiously awaiting other anti-bacne suggestions, though.

 

OFF WITH IT!!! *bellows for other ladies to disrobe the tiny one should she fail to comply* :tears::tears::tears:

I'll look up what I can find about HRT and acne stuffs this week.

 

I'm sure you can.. Check up with a GT to see though. I did hear it's possible for the non-binary and genderqueer crowd to get stuff now.

 

Anytime. (*hug*)

Make sure, though, that you discuss with your GP what dietary changes you might need to make in order to maintain your metabolism and Vitamin D levels properly.

 

Hey 'yall,

So one thing real quick, Gates you know you are awesome in my book and I'm totally not trying to do anything but clear up a common misconception, but

So it could have made your T levels go up but the reason would be different. Conversion is always androgen -> estrogen, never the other way around. However (and sorry this is going to sound real technical), if you fill up your estrogen receptors - those are what they sound like, little estrogen "gas tanks" in your body - with plant estrogens (called "bioidentical hormones" if you want to be fancy), then you can't fill 'em up with real estrogen. And real estrogen works better. So the effect is, T is working just fine, E isn't... you're there.

Also I will try to condense my normal rant on herbals down as small as possible, and this is totally in agreement with what Gates said,

* Supplement pills are just distilled food. The problem with them is that you don't get regular dosages. Meaning one pill could have 100 mg and another could have 10 mg.

* If you are going the safer route and getting stuff through food, Soy has two chemicals in it. One of those does not promote breast cancer, the other does. Kale, cabbage, foods like that can make soy safe. Mushrooms block the bad ones too.

* Unfortunately - and there's no real great way to say this so I will just say it plainly - if you have testicles, you can't safely feminize yourself hormonally without HRT. The reason is that any food or herbal supplement dose of androgen blockers effective enough to fight all the T your body is making, would damage your kidneys.

* What you can do MtF is slow down Androgen production with diet. You can do this by lowering your cholesterol, drinking a few cups of green or mint tea a day - don't overdo it, green tea drains your fluids and calcium if you drink too much - doing lots of aerobic exercise every day, eating plant based complete proteins (go ahead and eat chicken or fish too if you don't wanna be a diet geek), and avoid red meat.

* What you can do FtM is a lot of that kale and cabbage I was talking about earlier, eat that red meat I was telling the MtF people to avoid but lean, no more than 1/3 of your diet should be fat in fact, build muscle and lean tissue, plant based complete protein helps you guys too, limit your alcohol and be completely sober if you can handle it, and something that helps everyone get the other one's hormones a little higher is "good fats", Omega-3s. You get those from beans and fish. Oh, real important for you fellas, a good night's sleep every night.

In general, everyone going both ways should try to put together a heart healthy diet. That will keep your body from making too many of its own sex hormones.

I'll answer the OP in a new post since this one got long.

---------- Post added 19th May 2014 at 09:40 PM ----------

So as far as doctors and therapists, your being genderqueer, and your hormones.

I can recommend that advice only for any of the therapists in this list, Therapists .

I just want to be clear here, if a therapist says something like "you shouldn't be on anti-androgens because we got a blood test and it looks like it would be bad for your kidneys", or "I can't put you on them until you resolve these other issues first"... please don't find another therapist in those cases. You can work with the one you have. There are other ways to help you.

A doctor or therapist's job is looking for what they call "counter-indications" for hormones. In plain English those are good reasons why you should not be on them.

The other part of their job is to make sure that you know what you are getting into, and aren't doing hormones for the wrong reasons. Hormones don't just change our outer body, they change you inside too. The wrong hormones do have really bad side effects for anyone. That's one of the reasons I'm transitioning. Without HRT, I am on natural drugs that my body is producing that are wrong for me. Having low T and more E has affected my mood, my personality, and my sex drive.

Also your body needs some sex hormones in it. Otherwise your bones will become brittle, your body will have a hard time regulating things like your blood pressure... old ladies post menopause have a lot of those kinds of problems.

So what I'm getting at is, hormones as a way to affirm your identity are probably not the best. Hormones are something some of us need to get over a disability that screws up day to day life for us. That might be you too. I can imagine a lot of situations where someone genderqueer would have some of the same problems I have. But what I'm saying is, take them for that reason, to fix real problems in your life. You can be a man, woman, or genderqueer without hormones. What you can't do is go to school, do your job, have a relationship, etc. on the wrong hormones.